Monday, November 21, 2005

Today, I had my third operation (in the last 15 months) for my toe. It did not get off to a good start:

Doctor: So, how has it been?

The Hek: How has what been?Doctor: Your toe. How has it been since I operated on it?

The Hek: You didn't operate on it.

Doctor: What? Oh yeah! You're right, I never did operate on it last week. I totally forgot about that. Okay, I'll operate on it today.

Not exactly something that fills you with confidence. Anyway, he gave me four needles worth of freezing until the toe was completely numb and then, went to work. When he finished, he wrapped me in this huge bandage and prescribed two types of medication for me. One was Tylenol 3 for the pain and the other was Cephalexin, to prevent any type of infection. He also scheduled me to see him again next Monday. I was finished at 6pm and just my luck, the prescription shop at Carleton was closed which meant I would have to get the meds somewhere else. So I walked a couple of blocks to the Shoppers Drug Mart and got the prescriptions filled. Of course, when I was in the store the anesthetic began to ware off and if you ever had an operation with freezing, you know how painful things start to get. Finally, after getting my meds, I called for a Taxi and had to wait on the line for 10 minutes before I spoke to the dispatcher. Then I had to wait for another ten minutes until the cab showed up. So to recap:

$2.75 bus fare + $25.76 medication + $13.50 cab ride home = $42.01 all because of one little toe nail that didn't grow the right way.

I'm a little worried about the pain killers. For the first two operations, the doctors never prescribed them for me. A lot of wrestlers, athletes, celebrities and regular Joes have become addicted and dependent on them. I have already taken two. I pray to God I don't turn into an addict.

Now for something completely unrelated: I was on a very crowded bus, today and I thought to myself, "I wonder what would happen if I lit a fire cracker right here, right now?"